The Breaking Of Dawn
by checkerbloom
Summary: Lily realises what Sirius and Remus are to each other. SiriusRemus LilyJames SLASH! Been done before but I wanted to do it too so meh! Sickly sweet.


When Lily started to realise it was like the break of dawn, sunlight slowly crawling over the horizon. She had only ever seen them as a bunch of idiots. Irresponsible, immature, arrogant, annoying. But then she had been adopted into their odd little family and she had started to see what no one else did.

The dawn broke after the first Quidditch match of the year. The Slytherins fouled and the Gryffindors retaliated. The fight had descended to the grass below and only after blood had been shed could the teachers re-establish peace.

Remus and Peter had hurried to the changing rooms and Lily had been at their heels. She was a part of this now, she had given in to Potter and she had as much right to fuss and yell as anyone.

Remus had shaken his head with a wry smile at the sight of James's bloody nose and swollen eye. Sirius had escaped unscathed, but when he clapped his hand to James's shoulder Remus had frowned at the bruised knuckles.

A frown. A ray of dazzling sunlight. Lily had puzzled over the smile for a bloody face and the furrowed brow for a bruised knuckle and then put it from her mind.

Lily had worn her own frown at breakfast sometime later. She had taken to sitting with them at mealtimes but this time was when she noticed.

Remus had been reading the Daily Prophet, seemingly oblivious to all. James had been whispering sweet nothings to her that were going largely unheard. Sirius and Peter were locked in a conversation about retrieving something from Filch's office. But even as Sirius was speaking he was pouring milk into a teacup. Lily had noticed because it wasn't his teacup, it was sitting just in front of Remus.

He spooned two teaspoons of sugar into the liquid and stirred before setting the spoon down and reaching for the toast.

He was still talking to Peter. Remus was still hidden behind the paper. But then a hand had snaked around the Daily Prophet and wrapped around the cup. Knowing it would be there, with milk and two sugars.

They were sitting in the common room one afternoon, Lily on James's knee, trying not to laugh at one of Sirius's lewd jokes. Remus had dropped onto the couch beside him, and his hand had fallen just beside Sirius's. Only their fingertips were touching, barely at all. Lily didn't even know that she had noticed until Peter offered Remus a chocoball.

Remus had had to scoot further across the couch to reach the proffered sweets. But the hand didn't move. He left his hand barely touching Sirius's even as the rest of him moved.

Winter brought a blanket of snow. Lily had rolled her eyes at the anatomically correct snowman Sirius had made, and she kissed James's reddened nose.

"You're hands are cold," Sirius had told Remus.

"I forgot my gloves," Remus replied.

When Lily turned to look Sirius had taken his gloves off and offered them to Remus.

"Don't be daft," Remus smiled, "then your hands'll be cold."

Sirius shook his head, "my hands don't matter."

Remus didn't take the gloves. Sirius didn't put them back on.

No one ever noticed. Lily had never seen any of it until she was admitted into the inner sanctum of their lives, and even then she almost missed it. They were incredibly subtle, almost too subtle. Did they even realise what they were doing themselves? But Lily watched them, and she noticed.

"What's going on with Black and Lupin?" she demanded to know.

"What?" James frowned, "what do you mean?"

The look of confusion had been so genuine she had faltered. Were they so subtle that even James hadn't seen it? The brief glances, the shy touches, the easy routine they had?

Towards the end of January Sirius caught a cough. At the beginning of February Remus had one too.

No one else caught the cough.

Later, as Lily sat half hidden in a corner reading Witch Weekly, Remus returned from the hospital wing, looking pale and weak and tired. He had flopped onto the couch and closed his eyes.

Sirius got up from his chair and moved towards him.

"To bed with you Moony!" he called.

Remus hummed low in his throat and curled up on the sofa, eyes closed and a small smile on his lips.

Sirius bent over the tired boy and blew a strand of hair from Remus's face with such tenderness that Lily actually sighed. Remus blinked his eyes open lazily and looked up at Sirius.

"Bed," Sirius said. Remus nodded and allowed the dark haired boy to lead him to the stairs.

The next night James and Sirius had ambled away to detention. Lily had called goodnight to Remus, but he hadn't heard her. He was gazing out of the window, a wistful look on his face.

"Missing Sirius?" she asked with a knowing smile.

Remus looked to her over his shoulder, "Sirius is right there," he said softly.

With a frown Lily walked to the window, expecting to see Sirius out in the grounds below, but Remus was looking up, not down.

"That's Sirius," he smiled, pointing, "the brightest star in the night sky."

Lily looked.

"It can be seen from almost every inhabited region of the world," Remus said, a smile playing on his lips and a far away look in his eyes, "it can even be seen in daylight with the naked eye, if the observer is high enough and the sun is low enough."

"You into astronomy?" Lily asked.

"No," he smiled, "just Sirius."

That was when the dawn had broken, when sunlight banished all of the shadows to illuminate what had always been there. Remus had wished her goodnight and gone to bed, but Lily stayed to gaze at that star for a little while, until James and Sirius came back from detention.

But if that was the dawn, then midday occurred the next morning when Lily had gone to the owlery to send a letter. She had heard a sigh, a sound of such utter contentment that she had had to pause. The sigh was followed by a long, low moan that raised the temperature of her flesh by a few degrees.

She followed the sounds to the walkway outside. Deserted, but for two teenagers. Remus's hands were in Sirius's hair, and he was arching wantonly into the other. Sirius had one hand on the small of Remus's back, pulling him closer, into him, possessively, while the other was resting almost lightly on his neck, keeping his lips pressed to his own.

The kiss was long and slow and languorous. Lazy even, as if this had been done a million times before and would be done again but for now they would savour it. Every taste and touch was a bead of perfection that should never be rushed, never forced, but should be owned.

Lily didn't see who broke the kiss. It seemed that both did, and yet neither moved that she could see. One moment their lips were caressing and searching and speaking with words that could not be heard with the ear. The next only their foreheads were touching and they were looking at one another, as though trying to burn the colour of one another's eyes into their eyelids.

"Let's stay here forever," Sirius whispered.

"We need to go to breakfast," Remus replied with a smile, "and classes."

Sirius turned his face and kissed the line of Remus's jaw. Remus gasped and closed his eyes, tilting his head slightly so that Sirius could press soft kisses down the curve of his neck.

Lily turned then, and walked away. Her heart was thudding in her chest and her legs felt slightly unsteady. She hadn't meant to intrude on them, she hadn't meant to spy. But now she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she had realised. She knew.

And Lily Evans liked being proved right.

She wandered back to the main castle, with a dreamy smile on her face and the forgotten, unsent letter in her hand, searching for James Potter so she could kiss him until he came undone.


End file.
